No use being stupid if you can’t use it.

Dec. 12
The plan was to go to Red Rock Canyon State Park 20 miles north of Mojave. This is a beautiful little park full of cacti, Joshua trees and marvelous geological formations created millions of years ago out of…yes…red rock. This park we have used for many years as a stopping off spot on the way to or coming back from other desert locations in the south.
When we arrived I was pleasantly surprised that we had the entire place all to ourselves, not that that I suspected a great many campers there at this time of the year. That night I discovered why…we practically froze to death! No wonder no one was here. Even the reptiles have more common sense than I do. They’re all snug in their holes in the ground hibernating till winter passes. I went to bed with long underwear, sweat pants, two pairs of socks and knit cap on my head and still was cold. It was cold enough that Sinbad burrowed under the covers to sleep curled up against my stomach all night. Who was warming who? I do not know but my belly was the warmest part of my body. In the morning, it was 30 degrees outside and a blistering 2 degrees warmer inside.
The sun had not yet cleared the horizon when duty called. I added to what I slept in a hooded sweatshirt, flannel lined Levis, heavy woolen mittens and my NASA spaceman socks and walked over to the open-air pit toilets. Take my word for this, you don’t even have to put it to a test, an ass gasket provides no insulation what-so-ever against a 30 degree toilet seat. None. Zip. Nada. On the march back to the Little BOX I envisioned a fortune could be made by inventing insulated ass gaskets. Now of course this would necessitate a consumer base market for this product in order to make all the research and devolvement feasible, even before I went into production. A bit more thought on this and a look around the empty campground and I came to the conclusion that there are not enough dumb campers as myself out there to warrant any further thought on the subject.
Back in the RV Sinbad showed not interest in wanting to go outside as he is usually waiting at the door. Yes, my cat is smarter than I am at times. I did go for a little walk-about just to let my nose run though. I did the dishes (although it mattered to only a cup and a spoon, but any excuse to have my hands in warm water was reason enough), squared things away and drove out a day earlier than planned. Thirty minutes later at Mojave, I was finally comfortably warm.